Shows & Happenings

Hot Stuff: Animators From Disney, Marvel, And More To Speak At Icon Manila!

Icon Manila is back in full swing this year with its high caliber guest artists from the animation, movie and game industries joining the event organizer, Armand Serrano, as speakers.

Zac Retz is a visual development artist for animated feature films and an accomplished painter. He specializes in environment designs, story moment paintings, prop designs, color scripts, paint lighting keys, and more. Zac worked at Sony Pictures Animation, Alcon Entertainment and currently working at Walt Disney Animation Studios. His movie credits include Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Mike Azevedo is a world renowned freelance Illustrator and concept artist from Osasco-São Paulo, Brazil. He has worked with clients such as Valve, Riot Games, Blizzard Entertainment, Tencent Games, Guerrilla Games, and VOLTA. He is now working as an art director and CEO of Mar Studio. He also teaches at ICS School in São Paulo.

Bobby Pontillas is a veteran character designer currently working at Walt Disney TV Animation. He was an art director at Taiko Studios and co-director (with Andrew Chesworth) of their first Academy-award nominated short film, One Small Step. In his varied career he has worked as an animator and character designer at such studios as Walt Disney Animation Studios, Blue Sky Studios & Arena Net. His film credits include Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Moana, and Tangled (TV series).

Finnian MacManus is a senior concept designer working in the film and game industries and currently working at Marvel Studios. Based out of Los Angeles, he has recently contributed to titles such as The Lion King, Avatar Sequels, Rogue One, Jungle Cruise and the award winning game, God of War. Always trying to find ways to experiment, Finnian now uses a combination of VR sculpting, photoshop painting and 3D rendering to create most of his fantastic designs.

Event organizer, Armand Serrano, is visual development artist and production designer for animated movies and games. Based in Los Angeles, he is also currently working at Marvel Studios and recently art directed a video for the Portland-based The Bible Project Studios. Armand's credits include Zootopia, Big Hero 6, Animal Crackers, Mulan, Lilo And Stitch, Brother Bear, Hotel Transylvania, League of Legends and World of Warcraft.

In partnership with the De Lasalle - College of Saint Benilde, Animation Council of the Philippines, and Wacom Southwest Asia, ICON MANILA 2019 will be held on September 20-21 at the Samsung Hall, right at the heart of the beautiful Global City in Metro Manila, Philippines. For registration and all other info, go to www.iconmanila.com.